Dorycnium hirsutum Little Boy Blue - Canary Clover

Dorycnium hirsutum 'Little Boy Blue', also known as hairy canary clover, is a superb cultivar with silver-grey foliage, of Mediterranean origin. It has a dense and branching growth and beautiful, velvety, evergreen foliage that is very soft to the touch. In late spring or summer, it is covered with a multitude of small white flowers with silky petals, forming a light mass on the foliage. This plant is perfect as groundcover, to colonise slopes and slightly wild areas of the garden, but also in pots, in well-drained soil and in full sun.

Dorycnium hirsutum belongs to the Fabaceae family.  The excellent cultivar 'Little Boy Blue' stands out mainly for the colour of its foliage, which is green-silver to grey-blue. It forms a small bush of 50 cm (20in) in all directions, with dense and rather spreading growth. It has small, evergreen leaves composed of 3 leaflets and 2 stipules covered with small silky hairs that make it attractive all year round. Between June and July, depending on the climate, it is covered with small white-pink and silver flowers, harmoniously matching its foliage. They are born in the axils of the leaves, grouped in clusters of 5 to 9. Melliferous and nectariferous, it has a typical flowering pattern of the pea family, with an upright standard, 2 fused wings, and a shorter keel ending in a red tip. The flowers are followed by ovoid pods, arranged in a star shape, of an elegant shiny purple, containing spherical seeds that are projected when ripe.  The hairy Dorycnium does not live very long, especially in wet soil, but it easily self-seeds in dry and light soil.

This lovely plant, hardy up to -12°C (10.4°F), thrives on limestone, poor, well-drained soils, and tolerates sea spray well. Both wild and delicate, its bright foliage enhances, on a sunny slope or in a rockery, more spectacular perennials such as sages, penstemons, or rockroses. In a dry garden, it is a pioneering plant, ideal for quickly filling a large slope or a bed, along with cistus and lavender. Dorycnium also adapts very well to container gardening, as long as you allow the substrate to dry between waterings.